Footwear.



E. D. DGNOGHUE FOOTWEAR.

^ APPLIGATLON FILED JAN. 25, 190s.

- the bottom ot a s FRNCI D. DONOGHUE, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

FOOTWEAR. u

\Specicaton of Letters Patent.

Patented :Marchv 16, 1909.

Applicatien iled January 25, 1908. Serial No. 412,531.-

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, FRANCIS D. DoNoGHUE, a citizen of the United States,and a resident of Boston, in the county of Suolk andl State ofMassachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inFootwear, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to footwear.

More particularly, it relates to coverings for the human foot having anupper portion which passes over the inste and a sole under the foot, allsuch footwear eing included in the term shoe as here used.

The purpose of the invention is to eliminate certaln structural featurescustomarily present in shoes as now.made and worn, tending to injure ordeform the foot, and to introduce certain novel features which arebeneficial and preservative in tendenc The invention provides a shoe inwhich the constrictive effect of the upper tends to maintain and even toincrease the arch formation of the bones of the'foot, instead of tendingto break down or flatten it. This is accomplished by attaching'the upperat the instep to the shank portion of the sole only on the outer edgeof. thefoot. The edge of the upper which has heretofore customarily beenattached on the inside of the foot is carried under the foot andattached beneath the outside of the foot.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure il is a representation of the bonesin a human foot as shown in side elevation in a radiograph, the footbeing representedas wearing a shoe shown partl 1n section. Fi 2 shows oeembodying t e invention, in process of construction. Fig. 3 representslin end elevation- ,somewhat diagrammatically, the'middle ortion of afoot wearing a shoe made accor ing to the invention,'sectioned on theline 3-3 of Fig. l, the section being taken just back 'of the apex ofthe middle transverse arch of the foot, show'- ing the relation of theupper sole to that arch. Fig. 4 is a diagram of forces in Fig. 3'; andFig. 5 is a corresponding diagram of the forces in shoes not embodyingthe invention, as ordinarily constructe In shoes as ordinarilyheretofore construc ed, the upper runs from the sole on one side of thefoot over the middle transverse arch of the foot down to the sole on theother side of Vthe foot. At the shank of the ,sole there is anappreciable and considerable foot at o r near the apex of thelongitudinal and intervening anteroostero arch. It may be recognized Iby the one which projects upward on the foot about in the middle of thelacing of all low shoes as usually now constructed. At this place thefoot has five longitudinal bones arranged side by side in the form of anarch-ap roximately as representedin Figs. 3, 4 an( 5, the inner base ofthe arch being higher than the outer. The under side of the foot curvesupward in a manner corresponding somewhat to this arch of bones. nwearing a shoe the foot is thrust between the upper and the sole and isthen bound down upon the sole by tightening and fastening the upper withstrings or buttons.

YThe tightening of the ipper depresses the foot toward the sole an thustends to depress and iiatten the arch of the foot by drawing it tightagainst the breadth of sole underlying it. When a forward step is takenthe arch of the foot has to rise from. the ground. As the toes remain onthe ground, this is impossible unless the sole of the shoe is bentcorrespondingly. The resistance of the sole to bending, transmittedthrough the upper and imposed on the to of the arch of the foot,constitutes an a ditional force acting at each step with a tendency tobreak down the arch. The nature of this action is illustrated in thediavram Fig. 5. 'The resistance of the sole and the constriction due tolacing are like forces pulling downward upon the arch as indin cated bythe arrow, tending to destroy it. The invention provides a structure inwhich, contraryto thls, the forces tend to form the arch or to preserveit, as will be seen by reference to the diagram of Fig; 4. The forces inthat iigure tend to-draw the bone at .the upper end or base of that archtoward tho bone at the other end orbase. The more tightly the lacing isdrawn the more the curvature of the arch is increased. Likewise, intaking a forward step, the re'- sistance of the sole to bending,whentransmitted and applied to the arch., tends to draw the up er basetoward the lower base, thus strengthening the arch. The stren 'th of thelongitudinal archidepends consi erlos A ably on the maintenance of thecurvature of the transverse arch. When the 'latter is iattened the lonitudinal arch can break down more easily t an when its cross section, asrepresented by the form of'the transverse arch, is well curved.Therefore, the invention tends also to strengthen the longitudi Inapplying the principles above set forth the design and construction ofshoes may proceed in general as heretofore, except that the sole andupper are shaped so that, for the right shoe, both riOht and left edgesof the upper are attached3 to the shank of the sole at the right side ofthe foot 5 and for the left shoe both right and left edges of the up erare attached to the shank of the sole un er the left side of the foot.

The invention is here illustratedas may be applied to a welt shoe; butit is applicable to shoes' made by any other method includthe4 foot.

f side for the left foot and on the leftv side for ing, for example,turned shoes, McKaysewed shoes and pegged shoes and the word sole asused here and in the claims may refer either to the single sole of aturned shoe or to the combined outer andinner soles if a shoe have both.As here illustrated (Fig. 2) the upper 9 and 'its inner lining'S arerepresented as sewed to an inner sole 10 and a welt 12, the inner solebeing channeled for this purpose inthe ordinary manner as represented at11. At the shank 13 the edge 14 of the upper, which is on the inner sideof the foot, comes as close as possible to the edge 15 ofthe up erwhichis on the outer side of T e shank of the inner sole which receives theseedges is made very narrow,

bringing the edges of theupper as near together as the width of theintervening two channels'jvill permit. For this pur ose the inner soleis deeply recessed on t e right the right loot. This recess runs forwardconformably to the shape of the foot about to the inner endr of themiddle' transverse arch of the foot. The last is shaped accordingly. Bythis construction, the part of the footwear`that incases the middleorti'on of the foot consists practically who yy ofV soft leather of theu per, which underneath the y foot takes the p ace heretofore occupiedby the still shank of the solo. 1When the lacing is drawn the softleather its this part of the foot like a glove. The upper may be laced.

'as tightly as desired between the arch and the ankle, the tightnessmerely binding the arch of the foot more strongly in. its curvedformation, Instead of the foot being drawn down more tightly to the solewith accompanying tendency to depress the arch, the

exible 'under portion of the upper is lifted and drawnupward moreclosely about the foot. The only part of the footwear under the middleportion of thefoot which does not thus rise to the foot is the twoclose- 'about that portion of the foot.

together ed es of the upper and that triiiing portion of t e sole whichintervenes between them; and these parts are located, according thefoot, t. e.,- beneaththe lower basev of the vto the invention, beneaththe outer side of transverse arch, where the under side of thel 4 footnormally touches the ground.

' Ordinarily it will be necessary for the top ofthe shoe to be split oropen below the apex 16 o f the middle transversel arch, as now customary'and as shown in Fig. 3, in order for the foot to be inserted; but thelacing represented by' eyelets 18 below said' apex is not needed to holdthe shoe :on the foot and might be omitted, theenlyq lacing necessarybeing that between said apex and the ankle asat l? for drawing the uppersnugly That lacing may be loose enough to be entirely Acomfortable,owing to the .glovelike grasp of the fit. The fore part of the4 shoe maybe loose and larger than the foot if desiredwithout danger of comingoff; and the shape of the toe, sole, heel and other p'arts may be ivaried at will or as fashion may demand.

1n shoes having a channeled inner sole as above described, the innersole is extremely narrow at its shank, and the shank of the outer solemay be correspondingly narrow if' desired; but it is preferable, inorder to 'give greater strengthv to the sole, Vand toV protect from wearthe portion of the upper which is under the foot, to make the outer solewide enough to extend under the major portion of the instep of the foot.The shank of the outer sole is therefore represented in Figa?) as ofordinary width; but nearly all of its width mightbe cut away, as, unlikethe arrangement in ordinary shoes, this por-A tion of the sole does notform apart of the band encircling the foot. i

I claim 1. Footwear having a sole in combination with an upper,bothright and left sidesof which, at a place between the heel and ball.of the foot, are attached to the sole under the outer side of the foot.

2. `Footwear having a sole in combination with an upper arranged aboveit and at-. tached thereto, the right and left sides of which are, atthe' heel and at the ball of the foot, sha ed upward from theirrespective sides of t e sole and at a place between said heel and ballare sha ed upward from under the outer side of the pot.

3. Footwear having a sole in combination with an upper, both outer andinner edges of ing attached to the'edges ol the inner sole;

'sole extending under the maj or portion of the oi the foot and to therear thereof; both outer and inner edges of the upper being attaehed tothe sole approximately under the exterior base of said. arch,-

5. Footwear having an outer sole in eombination with a Welt and an innersole attached thereto, and an upper, the upper bethe inner sole having adeep recess at the instep, thereby forming its s lank at the outer sideof the foot,`and the shank of the outer width of the instep of thefoot.

6. Footwear'cornprising a flexible upper itting overand under the middletransverse arch of the foot .and to the rea'r thereofvand hayingitsedges brought in under the foot to f approximately surround the footwith the :I f upper,. in combination with a sole having approximatelythestinessof sole leather, the `1 I upper being attached by itsedgestofthe solel under the wearerfs foot.v

7. Footwear /bomprising a lexibleupper :fittingl over and .under themiddle transvere arch ofthe fdot and to the :ear 'thereof and having itsedges. brought in under the foot to approximately upper, `in combinationwith' a sole having a proxilnzly the stiffness' of sole leather, tllieupperb under Vliewear'ers foot at the outer portion thereof.approximately the tread of a normal shoewearing hare foot.

Surround the foot with the y ing attached by its. edges to the sole 3along the bordere of' signature, in'presence of4 two-witnesses.

FRANCIS .n.:noaoen'un llit'nesses':

4- .JosEPH T. BRENNAN, 'EvERErr E. KENT.

